A look at how to digitize analogue audio formats such as phonographs (lps) and cassettes and preservation of the original media formats. Updated May 30, 2017

1. John Lund Presents
Audio Digitization and Preservation
John D. Lund, 2017

2. John Lund Presents
I’m not an expert
If I can do it so can you!
Audio Digitization and Preservation

3. John Lund Presents
I’m not an expert
 I am an archivist with knowledge and experience
preserving records.
 I am the Digital Records Archivist for the City of
Ottawa Archives.
 Previously I was the Photo Records Archivist for the
Provincial Archives of Alberta.
 I am a total GEEK.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Here is what we are going to do:
 The basic umbrella of audio preservation
 Focus on audio cassettes and lps (vinyl records)
 Equipment and maintenance
 Digitization
 Resources
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Temperature and Humidity
No more than 5% fluctuation within a 24 hrperiod
Ideal temp lowerthan 21C,
20-40% Relative Humidity
+
-
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Sunlight (UV) and Heat
 Thus far vinyl (lps) have proven to be the most stable
of materials used in the manufacture of sound
records.
 However, that does not mean they are not affected by
environmental conditions such as ultraviolet light and
heat.
 Vinyl discs are made primarily of polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) with a stabilizer. The stabilizer prevents
degradation for several decades however PVCs are
inherently unstable.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Sunlight (UV) and Heat
 Similarly, magnetic tape is affected by ultraviolet light,
the tape will begin to degrade when exposed to UV.
 Heat
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Caring for your Vinyl
 Remove any remaining shrink wrap. Shrink wrap will
continue to shrink over time warping the record.
 Do not stack your vinyl horizontally (flat):
 The weight of the records on top of one another can exert
pressure on the grooves and cause sound distortion.
 Letting your records lean will cause the vinyl to warp.
 Vertical storage exerts the minimum amount of stress
possible.
 Do not interfile records of different sizes:
 Smaller records may get damaged
 Larger records may be subjected to uneven pressure
causing surface deformations.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Caring for your Vinyl
 Do not store your vinyl records squeezed together.
The additional pressure on the vinyl will lead to sound
distortion and surface warping.
 Keep your vinyl collection free of dust and other
foreign deposits.
 Wash your hands before touching the discs and avoid
touching the playing surface.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Caring for your Vinyl
 Keep your vinyl records away from food prep areas:
 airborne contaminants can easily stick to the records and
their jackets.
 Smoking bad for your records, bad for you.
 When cleaning the surface of your records use a
proper cleaning brush, i.e., carbon fibre brush.
 Recommend Storing in polyethylene dust jacket and
insert to reduce wear on record cover and record.
- Source: http://www.franksautographs.com/VINYL-RECORDS-PRESERVATION.html
Audio Digitization and Preservation
Note: franksautographs.com is no longer available
but it may be viewed via the Internet Archive,
web.archive.org. Franks Autograph Conservation
Storage Solutions & Framing does maintain a
Facebook page.

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Caring for your Vinyl
 Transcription Discs
 Must be treated with care and not in the same fashion as shellac or
vinyl records.
 http://www.theaudioarchive.com/TAA_Resources_Disc_Transcription.htm
 Go to a Pro, for example, Toronto Based:
 Graham Newton, Audio Restoration, www.audio-restoration.com
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Caring for your Audio Cassettes
 http://www.buzzfeed.com/perpetua/11-cool-things-made-from-old-cassettes
Audio Digitization and Preservation
Recycling Cassettes into
Reusable Cool or,
Cassettes as
Hipster Retro,

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Caring for your Audio Cassettes
 Storage:
 Fast-forward and rewind the tapes before storage- make
sure that the tapes are correctly wound evenly and smoothly.
 Store all tapes vertically in acid free boxes. Do not store on
wood shelving, in a basement or attic.
 Environment:
 Keep cassettes in a cool, dry, dust-free environment.
 Store away from direct sun & fluorescent light.
 Do not store near combustibles like wood or cardboard.
 Handling:
 Have clean hands and a dust free working area.
 Do not touch playing surfaces; handle the cassette tapes by
their outer casings.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Caring for your Audio Cassettes
 Handling cont’d:
 Do not operate or store cassette tapes near high magnetic
fields or high vibrations.
 Cleaning:
 Clean equipment (tape heads, guides, etc.) often and
thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs.
 Precautions:
 Fast forward to the end and back to relieve stress before
playing.
 Push out the small squares found at the top corners of
cassette tapes to prevent taping over the content.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Caring for your Audio Cassettes
 Precautions cont’d:
 Play tapes through every few years to check their condition
and to minimize any sticky shed symptoms (tendency for the
layers to stick together).
 Tape recorders:
 Clean the heads every 100 hours to demagnetize them.
 After 1000 hours of use have the recorder checked for worn
guides, worn heads, and proper tension.
 Tapes being “eaten,” arise when tape recorders create poor
tape guiding, speed variations, and poor tension.
Source: Preserving Your Sound Recordings, Amy Kohlstedt and Sara Doyle,
for the Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium
http://www.iowaconserveandpreserve.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AudioTipSheet.pdf
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Repair & Maintenance
 Rule #1: Get a professional to do it!
 But if you feel comfortable I will outline some of the
basics with some online help.
 Rule #2: Not all online help is equal, some is worse
than others.
 We will have a look at what resources are available.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Repair & Maintenance
 Cleaning a cassette deck / tape recorder:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2LQr63X7lk
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Repair & Maintenance
 Splice & Repair
Tape Centre: www.tapecenter.com
Splicit: www.splicit.com
Audio Digitization and Preservation
Duplication.ca is a Canadian
source for purchasing blank
cassettes.

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Repair & Maintenance
 How to splice tape (1 min in):
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaKBBZzU1zg
 How to fix a cassette when tape broken off spool:
 http://www.dvdyourmemories.com/blog/how-to-fix-an-
audio-cassette-audio-cassette-repair-guide/
 What’s wrong here?:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oglmVcLIYK0
 http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6709625_restore-cassette-tapes.html
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Scrub a dub dub
Get your vinyl spic and span clean
Discwasher D4
In the Groove
Nagaoka CL-152
Nitty Gritty VPI
Spin Clean
ClearAudio Dble Matrix Pro
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Scrub a dub dub
 So many options, here are some prices:
 Wood Glue, $8.00
 In the Groove, $19.99
 Nagaoka, $65.53
 Spin Clean, Starter: $109.99, Full Kit: $174.95
 Nitty Gritty, entry level: $749-$849
 VPI, $945.95
 ClearAudio, $1565.00 (Smart Matrix), $5600.00 (Double Matrix)
 Do it yourself – price varies 
 But what is the best option, the safe option?
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Scrub a dub dub
 Since dust is usually held in place by electrostatic attraction, dry
wiping does not work effectively. Wiping will attract dust back to
the surface.
 Distilled water is commonly used because:
 Its precise chemical composition is known,
 It will not leave deposits behind,
 It is safe and non-toxic,
 It is inexpensive,
 It disperses static charges and counteracts the increase in
conductivity from the pick-up of salt deposits from finger prints.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Scrub a dub dub
 Water alone cannot, however, dissolve grease:
 A surfacant additive is necessary, therefore, to break the grease
surface bonds and to allow the water to penetrate and disperse the
grease.
 Discs are best cleaned by using a machine such as the Keith
Monks, VPI or Nitty Gritty using a surfacant in distilled water. These
machines evenly disperse the liquid over the surface of the disc and
then vacuum clean the surface leaving it clean and dry. Records
should be cleaned before each playback.
 An airgun or aerosol of compressed air should be kept handy to
blow light dust off surfaces.
 Audiophiles favour carbon fibre brush before playing record.
Source: Audiovisual Archives: A Practical Reader, UNESCO: 1997
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Digitization
 The purpose of digitization is to provide accessibility to
information found on old formats that are no longer easily
accessible.
 Digitization may be used as a backup to the original.
 Digitization may be used to clean up audio and restore.
 Digitization may be used as a conservation tool when the
original format is in threat of degrading until no longer useable.
 Digitization is not a replacement tool.
 Do not get rid of your originals, especially if they are one of a
kind and not a commercial release.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Digitization - Equipment
 Vinyl:
 Turntable, preferably manual
 Receiver with a phono input,
or
 Receiver and a preamp or
 preamp (alt integrated
preamp)
 3.5mm Audio jack to RCA
Male cable
 Cassette:
 Cassette Tape Player
 Receiver
 3.5mm Audio jack to RCA
Male cable
Audio Digitization and Preservation
Behringer U-control
UCA202

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Receivers
Used vs New
Onkyo TX-NR626 - $529.95
Used vs New
Used Receiver $35.00 - $150.00
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Preamps and Cable
Canada Computers:
Behringer PP400
avshop.ca:
Rolls VP29 Phono Preamp
Available at The Source
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Integrated Amplifier
An integrated amplifier (pre/main amp) is an electronic device
containing an audio preamplifier and power amplifier in one
unit, as opposed to separating the two. Most modern audio
amplifiers are integrated and have several inputs for devices
such as CD players, DVD players, and auxiliary sources.
Integrated amplifiers commonly had dedicated inputs for
turntables, AM/FM tuner, and tape recorders (cassette or
reel-to-reel) back when those devices were more common.
Except for the turntable, all of the inputs are line level, thus
they are interchangeable.
The turntable also uses RIAA equalization.
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_amplifier
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Turntables & Cassette Players
 Turntables (preferably manual turntable)
 Used should be able to get a good quality turntable for $150
or under.
 New, introductory audiophile $350 - $600, under this price
mark and quality is an issue.
 The sky is the limit on what an audiophile will pay for a
turntable.
 USB turntables general rule of thumb are low quality.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

31. John Lund Presents
Turntables & Cassette Players
 Cassette Deck
 TEAC was one of the last to produce a high quality cassette
player, was still available 2013 but now discontinued.
 Used, anywhere from $25.00 to $100.00
- However they often come with a great need of cleaning.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Hardware & Software
 Audacity
 “Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and
recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other
operating systems.”
 It is Open Source Software
 It is relatively easy to learn how to use
 A reliable source to download from is Sourceforge:
- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Hardware & Software
 Pro Tools 11 / mbox 3rd
gen
 Pro Tools and the mbox are a software hardware
combination that constitute a professional digital
audio workstation for recording and editing in music
production, film scoring, post production, musical
notation and MIDI sequencing.
 Yes that is a mouthful.
 Mbox intro demo
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 We are going to use Audacity
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 But First, Computer Audio Preferences:
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 We are going to use Audacity
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 Monitoring
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 Monitoring
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 Monitoring
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 Clipping
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 Clipping
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 Clipping
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Let’s Get Busy!
 Some further procedures that I will be demonstrating:
 Playing
 Recording
 Noise Reduction
 Click Removal
 Selecting a recorded segment
 Methods of copying and deleting
 Fade in / Fade out
 And …
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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File Formats
 Archivematic Preservation File Formats,
https://wiki.archivematica.org/Format_policies
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File Formats – Export from Audacity
 Recommended:
 Preservation format – WAVE (.WAV)
 Access Copy – MPEG 3 (.MP3)
 Audacity defaults to saving an audio file as an
Audacity Project, which is in fact multiple files/folders
that combine to form one project.
 To save as either a .WAV or .MP3 file one must
“Export”rather than “Save” a file.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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File Formats – Export from Audacity
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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File Formats – Export from Audacity
Audio Digitization and Preservation
WAVE
MP3

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Storage
There are no guarantees!
Files stored on brand name CD-Rs have been
found not to open after less than a year.
Keep the original analog formats / audio
carriers, they are the preservation copy.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Storage
The best means of long term storage is to
store audio files on a server or an external
hard drive:
Your computer, a USB stick, or CD-R are more
susceptible to failure and loss of photos;
A One Terabyte hard drive (1 TB) cost about $75
It can store over 52,000 high quality photos (20MB
each);
 While a USB stick uses a solid state
drive (no moving parts/reliable), they
are prone to being misplaced or lost.
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Storage
Back up, back up, back up:
Keys to good back up:
- Automatic – whether you do it manually or have
an automated system back ups need to be
second nature;
- Local – first backup is easy and fast to restore,
such as, an external hard drive;
- Remote – in case of disaster, may store at work,
at a relatives or in the cloud (should be secure –
encrypted);
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Storage
Back up, back up, back up:
Instead of buying a 3 or 5 TB hard drive you may
want to buy two 1 TB hard drives in order to, at
minimum, provide for a secondary back-up as
previously described.
Cozy home
Bank your memories
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Storage – CD-Rs
While CD-Rs are not recommended for long
term storage, if required Gold CD-Rs are
preferred and may be purchased through
Quebec based http://www.stilcasing.com/.
DVD-Rs are designed with a
short shelf life
 They are not reliable
 Less standardized (HD vrs Blu-ray)
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Digitizing Intangible Cultural
Heritage : A How-To Guide
http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1445531744547
Audio Digitization and Preservation

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Questions?
Source: Wikipedia